[imagesource:thesimulation/x]

The company that made the controversial South Park AI episode generator last year is unveiling its own creative platform, which allows viewers to create their own AI-powered TV series.

The Simulation (previously known as Fable) has created ten TV shows made with Showrunner, the company’s text-to-episode system, each in different styles, from anime to Pixar-style, to the cutout style of South Park.

“It’s the Netflix of AI,” founder and CEO Edward Saatchi claims. “Watch an episode, or make an episode.”

With a prompt of 10 to 15 words, users can generate scenes and episodes ranging from two to 16 minutes, all with AI dialogue, voice, editing, different shot types, consistent characters and story development.

Those who want to dive deeper can edit their episodes’ scripts, shots, voices and remake episodes, but Showrunner is targeted at non-technical, non-professional users.

“Generating a new TV show should be as easy as browsing Netflix for a show.”

🚨ANNOUNCING SHOWRUNNER🚨

We believe the future is a mix of game & movie.

Simulations powering 1000s of Truman Shows populated by interactive AI characters.

🚨Welcome to Sim Francisco & Showrunner!🚨

SOUND ON!

Link to Signup in Bio pic.twitter.com/yptMocqOfW

— The Simulation (@fablesimulation) May 30, 2024

As part of the launch Thursday, Showrunner released two episodes of Exit Valley, a Silicon Valley satire starring iconic figures like Musk, Zuck and Sam Altman.  The show is an animated comedy targeting 22 episodes in its first season, some made by Fable and the rest made by users selected by a jury of filmmakers and creatives.

The other shows like Ikiru Shinu and Shadows over Shinjuku are set in Neo-Tokyo, in distinct anime worlds, and will open to user interaction later this year.

Showrunner demonstrated its SHOW-1 model last year with nine episodes of South Park AI, including the 22-minute episode “Westland Chronicles”  – about “Bizney” developing an AI stuffed toy with disastrous consequences.

The episodes, made without the permission of the South Park creators, received more than 8 million views and resulted in meetings with Fox, Netflix, Paramount and Sony.

Announcing our paper on Generative TV & Showrunner Agents!

Create episodes of TV shows with a prompt – SHOW-1 will write, animate, direct, voice, edit for you.

We used South Park FOR RESEARCH ONLY – we won’t be releasing ability to make your own South Park episodes -not our IP! pic.twitter.com/6P2WQd8SvY

— The Simulation (@fablesimulation) July 18, 2023

Hollywood will make two-way entertainment: audiences watching a season of a show, loving it and then making new episodes with a few words, audiences putting themselves in shows.

While Saatchi is bullish on the tech, a major weakness of Showrunner and AI in general for entertainment is that it’s more suited to episodic content rather than the epic 10-50 episode arcs of shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.

“AI can’t sustain a story beyond one episode. What AI is strongest at is deeply episodic shows with characters largely resetting every episode—sitcoms, police procedurals, space exploration.”

Showrunner only does animation for now, but Saatchi believes live-action is not far off. Sounds interesting, maybe one day someone can make an alternative ending to Lost that doesn’t suck so much.

[source:forbes]